Voda at UNO: Albania has made progress to put an end to risk of statelessness

09/10/2019

TIRANA, October 9 /ATA/- Deputy Minister of Interior Rovena Voda represented Albania at the high-level meeting at the UN headquarters in Geneva on the topic of concern of statelessness.

In her speech delivered on this occasion, the deputy minister said that Albania has increased the pace and undertook concrete steps to reduce the risk of statelessness.

“In late 2017 and early 2018, a consortium of public institutions and Ministries, civil society organizations and UNHCR, undertook a mapping and assessment of the situation in the country, which we published in June 2018. Through the mapping, we realized the magnitude and depth of risk of statelessness among the children born outside Albania from Albanian parents. In these cases, in reality we refer to obstacles to confirmation of nationality with regards to Albania”, emphasized Voda.

According to Voda, the Albanian Parliament took a decision to advance to address the identified legislative challenges.

“By year 2020 Albania will establish by law, and implement, a dedicated statelessness determination procedure. We intend to fulfill this commitment, through the Law on Asylum, currently undergoing review at administrative level, or through the Law on Aliens, that is due for review in 2020”, said Voda.

The deputy minister also said that, “Albania is progressively meeting its overall commitment to end Statelessness by 2024 in a concrete, yet ambitious way”.

The high representatives of the UNHCR and other countries appreciated the steps Albania has undertaken as concrete and effective./j.p/p.s./